High school and college sports teams have their cheerleaders and pep squads. Their job is to pump up the enthusiasm of the home crowd with cheers and fight songs. You know: Beat ’em, bust ’em — that’s our custom! Not exactly Shakespeare. But when your team is down and the game is on the line, you need all the help you can get.

We’ve been having a close look at the beginning of Micah chapter 5, the passage cited by Herod’s advisors in the gospel of Matthew. As is often the case with New Testament references to the Old Testament, it’s a loose quote, taking elements of two verses and blending them together. The prophecy points to a king who will arise from Bethlehem, from the line of David, to rule Israel and deliver the people from the Assyrians. Micah 5:3 suggests that God’s people will have to wait until “the time when she who is in labor bears a son” — presumably, the Davidic king — and when those who have been taken into exile return. As Micah says of this king:

He will stand and shepherd his flock
    in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they will live securely, for then his greatness
    will reach to the ends of the earth. (Mic 5:4, NIV)

That’s the other part of what King Herod’s advisors tell him; the one in Micah’s prophecy will shepherd the people, as a godly king should. God’s people will finally be settled securely in the land, for the king’s greatness will extend to the ends of the earth.

Moreover, Micah says,

And he will be our peace
    when the Assyrians invade our land
    and march through our fortresses.
We will raise against them seven shepherds,
    even eight commanders,
who will rule the land of Assyria with the sword,
    the land of Nimrod with drawn sword.
He will deliver us from the Assyrians
    when they invade our land
    and march across our borders. (vss. 5-6)

To use the metaphor I suggested in the previous episode, this is the view from the ground, addressing the very real threat of Assyrian invasion. Micah’s prophecy, however, is the view from above. There will not, in fact, be a king from Bethlehem or anywhere else who will lead God’s people to flip the military and political script and rule over Assyria.

But what then, does the prophecy mean? What is Micah saying?

Old Testament scholar Leslie Allen suggests that we read this as a nationalistic war song, like a fight song to rally the team when face to face with a superior opponent. If I had to give the song a title, it would be, “When Assyria Comes Into Our Land” — a line that repeats like a refrain in Micah’s Hebrew. One might imagine the people of Judah bravely singing the song to bolster their confidence when Samaria fell in the north. Did they still sing the song after Sennacherib invaded Judah and starting capturing cities? When the massive Assyrian army pitched their tents against Jerusalem?

I’m thinking not.

Judah’s nationalistic hopes and military bluster, in the end, come to nothing. God can save the people from Assyria, but their king Hezekiah can’t. And nobody will save Judah from Babylon.

But the view from above is about more than this. It’s about a Shepherd-King who will arise from Bethlehem, the city of David. It’s about the one who, in Micah’s words, “will be our peace.” The words are reminiscent of a similar prophecy from Micah’s contemporary, Isaiah:

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this. (Isa 9:6-7)

The Prince of Peace is the Davidic king who restores order forever, who rules with righteousness and justice. And though neither Micah nor Isaiah may have known that king’s name, we know him as Jesus.

Echoing the prophets, the apostle Paul tells us that “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1). Moreover, in Ephesians 2:14, Paul says that Christ “himself is our peace,” meaning that in reconciling all of humanity to God, Jesus has also broken down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles.

The view from ground level is about the present tension between Judah and Assyria, but the view from above embraces the whole world and all of eternity. The view from below is about division, hostility, and war, but the view from above is a vision of peace, of God’s all-encompassing wholeness and shalom.

If we consider ourselves to be followers of the Prince of Peace, therefore, we need to see the world and all of history from above, even as we live on the ground.